Tempest Project

Adapted and directed by Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne
Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord

German premiere

On July 2 last year, the great British theater director Peter Brook passed away in Paris at the age of 97. Countless obituaries around the world agreed on his exceptional standing: Brook was undoubtedly one of the most important theater creators of the 20th and 21st centuries. He was a theatrical revolutionary and a visionary. In May 2019, Peter Brook was a guest at the Ruhrfestspiele for the last time with "The Prisoner," an archaic fairy tale about guilt, punishment, and atonement that was co-produced with his Paris Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord. A year later, his next work was set to have its German premiere at the Ruhrfestspiele: "Why?". In it, Peter Brook investigated the simplest and simultaneously the most difficult question: Why? Why theater? Effortless and tragic, deep and funny, this play explored fundamental questions with moving simplicity and humanity. Unfortunately, it could not be shown to audiences because of the Covid19 pandemic. In April 2022, three months before his death, Peter Brook's last work premiered in Paris: "Tempest Project." It was to become his legacy.

According to Peter Brook and his longtime collaborator Marie-Hélène Estienne, '"The Tempest" is a play we know well - but working with a small group of actors, we rediscovered how this play contains so many rich layers of hidden meaning - it's Shakespeare's last play - and echoes so deeply through all his plays.' "Tempest Project" is Peter Brook’s final, dramatic, and beautiful journey to the continent of Shakespeare; he and his fantastic actors spirit the audience away to discover 'the stuff that dreams are made on.'